Are There Gorillas in Kenya? The Honest Answer

Short answerNo. There are no gorillas in Kenya — no wild population, no permit, no habitat. Mountain gorillas live only in the Virunga volcanoes and Uganda's Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, about a thousand kilometres west of Nairobi. Every trip advertised as “Kenya gorilla trekking” is really a combination itinerary that flies you to Uganda or Rwanda for the trek. That combination is excellent — it just is not what the name suggests.

This question gets asked a great deal, and it deserves a straight answer rather than a paragraph of scene-setting that quietly changes the subject. So: no. Then the useful part — where the gorillas are, and how to put them and Kenya into one trip without wasting a week.

No — and here is why

Mountain gorillas have one of the smallest ranges of any large mammal on earth. There are two populations, both landlocked in a corner of east-central Africa:

• The Virunga Massif — a chain of volcanoes where Uganda, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo meet, covering Mgahinga Gorilla National Park, Volcanoes National Park and Virunga National Park.
• Bwindi Impenetrable Forest in south-western Uganda, together with the adjoining Sarambwe reserve in the DRC.

That is the entire world range. It amounts to a few hundred square kilometres of high-altitude forest, and the total population sits at roughly 1,063 animals. Kenya has no part of it, has never had a part of it, and is separated from the nearest gorilla by Uganda in its entirety.

The other gorilla species — western lowland, Cross River, eastern lowland — sit further west and south still, in Cameroon, Gabon, the Congo basin and the eastern DRC. None comes near Kenya either.

What primates Kenya does have

Kenya is not short of primates — it is short of apes. The distinction is worth drawing, because it is the whole reason the question comes up.

If it is specifically apes you want, that means leaving Kenya. Uganda is the country that has both — mountain gorillas in the south-west and the continent's densest chimpanzee population in Kibale Forest. The difference between the two experiences is covered in chimpanzee trekking vs gorilla trekking.

Where the gorillas actually are

Four parks issue gorilla permits. Three of them are realistic for a Kenya combination trip.

For a trip that also takes in Kenya, Bwindi is the usual answer. It has the most permits, the lowest price, the largest number of habituated families, and Entebbe is a short scheduled hop from Nairobi. Rwanda works too and is quicker on the ground — the full comparison is here.

Combining Kenya with a gorilla trek

Here is the part worth knowing: this combination is genuinely easy, and much easier than the map makes it look.

Nairobi to Entebbe is a scheduled flight of a little over an hour, with several departures a day on Uganda Airlines and Kenya Airways. From Entebbe a light aircraft reaches the airstrips serving Bwindi in about the same time again. So the gorillas sit roughly half a day's travel from the Masai Mara — not the expedition people assume.

The two halves also complement each other properly rather than repeating. Kenya gives you open plains, big cats and enormous herds. Bwindi gives you a wet, steep, close-quarters forest hour that is nothing like a game drive. Doing both in one trip is one of the few East African combinations where each side makes the other better.

Three routings that work

Eleven days — the standard version. Entebbe (1) → fly to Bwindi (2, trek) → fly Entebbe–Nairobi (1) → Amboseli (2) → Lake Naivasha (1) → Lake Nakuru (1) → Masai Mara (2) → fly out of Nairobi. This is the itinerary below, and it is the one most people should book.

Eight days — compressed. Entebbe (1) → fly to Bwindi (2, trek) → fly to Nairobi (1) → Masai Mara (3) → Nairobi. Drops Amboseli and the Rift lakes, keeps the two things you came for. Tight but it works.

Fourteen days — gorillas, chimps and Kenya. Add Kibale and Queen Elizabeth to the Uganda leg before crossing to Kenya. You get both great apes and the Mara, which is about as much as East Africa offers in one trip.

What the gorilla half adds

The permit is the headline number and the one people fixate on, but it is not the whole cost of the detour.

A fuller breakdown of where safari money goes is in what an African safari actually costs, and the permit mechanics specifically in gorilla permit prices explained.

How to read a “Kenya gorilla” listing

Plenty of operators sell these trips with names like “gorillas and best of Kenya” and never mention that days one to three happen in another country. The itinerary is usually fine. The labelling is not. Four things to check before you pay:

1. Which authority issues the permit — it must be the Uganda Wildlife Authority or the Rwanda Development Board, named explicitly, with a park and a date.
2. Whether the permit is bought or merely “held” — Uganda no longer holds permits unpaid, so an unbought permit is not a booking. See how to book gorilla permits.
3. Which Bwindi sector — the sectors are hours apart on bad roads and the permit names one. Booking a lodge before the permit is the classic error; the sectors compared explains why.
4. Whether the cross-border flights are included or quietly left as your problem.

We build this combination regularly, and we would rather say plainly that the gorillas are in Uganda than let the trip name imply otherwise. See how our two-country trips are routed, or tell us how many days you have and we will say honestly whether both halves fit.

Gorillas in Kenya: common questions

Are there gorillas in Kenya? No. Kenya has no wild gorilla population, no gorilla trekking permit and no gorilla habitat. Mountain gorillas live only in the Virunga volcanoes — spanning Uganda, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo — and in Uganda's Bwindi Impenetrable Forest, roughly a thousand kilometres west of Nairobi.

Can you do gorilla trekking in Kenya? Not in Kenya itself. Trips sold as Kenyan gorilla trekking are combination itineraries that fly you to Uganda or Rwanda for the trek and return you to Kenya for the savanna parks. That is a perfectly good holiday, but the trek happens in another country and the permit is issued by that country's wildlife authority.

Why do people think there are gorillas in Kenya? Kenya is the destination most people associate with African safari, so the assumption is that everything African wildlife-related happens there. Tour operators selling combination trips also use phrases like 'gorillas and best of Kenya' without stating that the gorillas are in Uganda, which reinforces the idea.

How far is Kenya from the nearest gorillas? Nairobi to Bwindi Impenetrable Forest is roughly a thousand kilometres in a straight line. In practice it is a short scheduled flight from Nairobi to Entebbe, then a light-aircraft hop or a long drive south-west. Most travellers cover it in a single travel day.

What primates can you see in Kenya? Kenya has olive and yellow baboons, vervet monkeys, blue monkeys, black-and-white colobus, the endangered Tana River red colobus and mangabey, plus bushbabies. What it does not have is any great ape — no gorillas and no wild chimpanzees, though a sanctuary at Ol Pejeta houses rescued chimpanzees that were not born in Kenya.

Is it better to trek gorillas in Uganda or Rwanda when combining with Kenya? Uganda on cost — the permit is substantially cheaper and far more are issued daily. Rwanda on speed, since Kigali is closer to the park and transfers are shorter. On a Kenya combination the flight connections are similar either way, so most travellers choose Uganda and put the saving into their lodges.